Hanover Health Department boosts mosquito control with new fogging machines

Having acquired eight new fogging machines, the Hanover Health Department (HHD) is now confident that it can reduce the Aedes aegypti mosquito index in the parish to below the target of five per cent.

The Thermal Swing Foggers were donated by Americares, an international charitable organisation that carries out health assistance programmes in several countries around the world.

“They (Americares) were the donors that were at Chester Castle with us immediately after Hurricane Melissa,” said Aldwayne Beckford, parish manager at the Hanover Health Department, referring to the group which had set up a Type 2 field health clinic after the hurricane.

“We had previous dialogue with them (Americares), and they said that they could commit US$20,000 to our vector control programme, and as such the eight Thermal Swing Foggers were donated,” he added.

Beckford said the HHD was previously short of fogging machines, and the new equipment will allow the team to cover more communities and strengthen efforts to control the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits several mosquito-borne diseases.

Rowan Stephens, acting chief public health inspector at the HHD, recently told a monthly meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation that more than 16,000 premises in the parish were inspected for mosquito breeding in May. Of those, 836 were found positive.

“This represents an index of five per cent, with the Santoy area the lowest at 0.5 per cent and the Great Valley area the highest at 11.4 per cent. Overall, the index decreased comparative to the month of April 2026,” he said.

Beckford described the donation as timely, adding that any support to the department helps maintain public health standards in the parish.

“It was really an exciting venture, when the Americares team decided that they would assist us at the HHD in getting those additional equipment, and the vector team was really appreciative and excited about the fact,” he said, noting that the department has also recently received two new vehicles from the Ministry of Health and Wellness to strengthen operations.

“Getting these eight machines now will enable the team to go into more communities and do more work, cover more areas, and therefore we can maintain our target which is less than the five per cent at the end of the day, for the various indices,” he said.

Stephens told The Gleaner that the additional foggers will further enhance the vector control programme, allowing teams to expand coverage across the parish.

“So far we have been doing fairly well in terms of vector control, but these additional resources will enhance our service delivery in terms of vector control across the parish,” he said.

“The HHD will be in a position to deploy more teams at any given time to cover a wider area with its vector control programmes.”

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